Aircraft maintenance checks are periodic inspections that have to be done on all types of aircraft at frequent intervals as per the norms of the certification authorities like the federal aviation administration (FAA), joint aviation authorities (JAA), etc. These maintenance checks are periodic inspections generally include related maintenance software. The maintenance software is employed to exercise aircraft surfaces, systems, and components, to thereby identify/detect and address potential failures as early as possible.
In many aircraft, the flight control system (FCS) is very complex and forms a significant portion of the aircraft's software. The maintenance software generally resides within the FCS. Having the maintenance software in the FCS has several undesirable effects. First, it increases the size and complexity of the FCS software by many folds, which directly impacts FCS system performance and throughput. Next, as maintenance software is a major portion of the FCS software, the majority of the time delay in any new FCS software release may be related to the maintenance software. Related thereto, any minor change in the maintenance software requires re-certification of the FCS software, increasing the overall cost of the system.
Accordingly, improvements in aircraft maintenance software configuration that lean out the FCS software, improve efficiency, and reduce overall costs for the suppliers, original equipment manufacturers (OEM), and certification efforts, are desirable. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present disclosure will become apparent from the subsequent Detailed Description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this Background.